Employees have transferred. Some food products, once only regional favorites, have been shared and sold at Wegmans stores elsewhere (yes, even in barbecue-crazed Virginia, Dinosaur Bar-B-Que products are available at Wegmans and Virginia peanuts are here). Ideas have been transferred from north — Wegmans’ home market is Rochester — to the South, and South to North.

One implemented idea working in stores such as this 128,000-square-foot tri-level Wegmans in Fairfax, Va., in the Washington, D.C. metro area, is the sale of beer and wine by the glass to diners eating in Wegmans’ Market Cafes.

Wegmans would also like that to happen at its giant DeWitt store, the flagship in this market, and carried out to events in the adjacent patio area.

"Wegmans representatives recently met with the town of Dewitt to discuss our proposal to sell wine and beer in designated portions of our Market Café and outdoor patio at our Dewitt location. Their decision regarding our proposal is on hold at this time,'' said Evelyn Carter, Wegmans’ Syracuse consumer affairs manager. "During this period, we will revisit the details and design of our proposal. In addition, we received information from the New York State Liquor Authority regarding our liquor licensing application. We are in the process of reviewing their comments.''

It’s done in Fairfax and at other Wegmans supermarkets, including Potomac and Fredericksburg.

The Fairfax Wegmans has a self-serve and prepared food café that is long and deep, including a buffet with regional foods and a wide array of ethnic and vegetarian foods.

On a recent tour of the café and the attached wine shop — more on that below — store manager Bob DiTullio said the sale of wine and beer by the glass has been popular with customers at his Fairfax store and Wegmans supermarkets in neighboring towns and cities.

“They can order here,” DiTullio said while standing next to an elegant new Chinese noodle bar, “or they can take it to any of the high-top tables nearby or at café seating on the third level. They have to stay within a certain proximity.”

DiTullio said in nearby Leesburg, Va., a seafood bar is popular, with customers ordering beer or wine by the glass.

That Wegmans also has an outdoor patio area where customers can wine, dine and socialize, said DiTullio, who is also a product of Wegmans’ cross-pollination: He’s from Massena and went to SUNY Morrisville.

The patio areas raise the fun factor said DiTullio. And the sale of wine and beer has not been a negative issue.

“We’ve never had issues with people getting out-of-hand,” said DiTullio. “It’s not a sports bar atmosphere.”

In the lower level of this triple-decker Wegmans, there’s a Wegmans-run wine shop, with a wide assortment of wines and some craft beers. There’s a six-stool beer-tasting bar that on this March day, had Sam Adams and Dogfish ale on tap. A wine-tasting bar is on the other side of the wine shop, which is attached to a two-level parking deck.

Unlike in New York state, Virginia allows wine to be sold by the bottle in supermarkets.

That won’t be happening at the DeWitt store, though Wegmans has a work-around: In the same plaza is Liquor City, and although it’s not, by law, part of Wegmans Food Markets, it’s in the Wegman family. The owner is Christopher O’Donnell, who is the husband of Colleen Wegman, the president of Wegmans Food Markets Inc.

Carter said as soon as Wegmans gets the go-ahead from the town and the state, they’ll move ahead with selling beer and wine by the glass at the DeWitt store.

Wegmans will see how that goes before considering rolling it out to other Wegmans in the Syracuse market, including the Fairmount store, which will also offer outdoor patio seating at its Market Café.

Express checkout

Hanover Square’s Koolakian & Manro Menswear store is having a trunk show from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Thursday. Made-to-measure clothing from H. Freeman will be available, and representatives from H. Freeman and Alden Shoes will be on hand to help customers.

A new Aspen Athletic Club is opening in Fairmount. It’s temporarily in a spot at 3504 W. Genesee St., and will be there until September, when its larger, full facility opens nearby. That will be in the building that was briefly occupied by the Maines store.